If you're unfamiliar with the Fallout universe, then let me educate you.

Fallout is a series of video games that take place in an alternate history time line. The Action RPG (Role Playing Game) created by Bethesda is a cult sensation.

The premise for all the games is along the lines of this. Nuclear Winter has swept the globe and most of the only survivors made it because they were in underground bunkers. Those on the surface have struggled and scavenged, become murderous raiders or even mutated into zombie looking creatures called ghouls. Mutated creatures and monsters lurk around every turn, and you have to rely on skills and fighting abilities to make it.

Needless to say, with my passion for dystopian and alternate history stories; I have been a fan of the Fallout saga since Day 1.

When a great friend of mine, Comic book writer/artist Shane Ronzio told me his brothers production studio was making a Fallout Fan film, I jumped at the chance for an Interview! As happenstance would have it, Shane and I were both at Steel City Comicon a few weeks back and his brother showed up. In COSTUME! SO AWESOME!

Shawn Ronzio and I hit it off! Such a great dude, and his passion for Movie Making and Fallout may actually be the only competition I have for Dystopian Zealot of the Year.

IMP- What inspired you to make a Fallout universe fan film?

A&O- Well, Long ago in a place called the 80's, Before our minds were saturated with mass media. I spent a lot of time with our VCR watching movies like Damnation Alley, Mad Max, Space Hunter, Escape from NY, Night of the Comet, Battletruck, Hardware, Warrior of the lost to name a few. The wheels of the post apocalypse were always spinning in my mind. in 1997, I got my first taste of fallout on PC and it started there, burning in the back of my skull, keeping me up at night, imagining about survival in that place of suffering and loss.The movie has been brewing in my mind for quite some time, The world of Fallout was reborn into my life through my children, I had left home to go to LA to work in the special fx film industry in 2000. as my kids grew, My Daughter Zoe was the one to bring Fallout back into my life with Fallout3. We would spend hours role playing inside the wasteland, creating our own stories and having adventures. Then, we caught word of New Vegas was soon to break loose, and That is where this all started. I sculpted the Ranger mask well before the game came out from screen shots and concept art.

A&O- It took one day to shoot, about a month to edit. 4.5 months to create all of our weapons, costumes, Bloat fly and sculpt and mold the Protectron. I teach a class at the Savini School of Special Makeup Effects at DEC in Monessen PA, day one of class, on a whim, I walk in and say, you guys like fallout?? And just like that, My students lit up like a nuclear explosion and we worked like crazy people to create the opportunity to tell a short story in that place we only get to visit in our imagination, video games, and movies.So It took about 15 weeks of build and prep for a one day shoot, the process of writing a gigantic story and breaking it down into a little chip of a tale to shoot for a one day project with my class.

​IMP- What are some of the challenges of making an Indie Fan Film?

A&O- Well, the biggest challenge is the team, there are so many aspects to creating a film that require the right minds and energy, you have to really have to give it the best you got and nothing short there of when you make something like this. Location is huge, you have to have the locations and imagery that coincide with the story, costumes and acting has to be spot on or the translation will not work, and to get everything and everyone on the same page is an entire dance of nimble feet that is not easy to learn or perform. Time spent in the film industry really helped me prepare for such a thing, because if you want the world to see what is in your head and put it to moving pictures, you have to wear many hats. You must do everything to lead the crew to victory, and you must stay awake longer and finish what others can not, make phone calls, have meetings, sculpt. I could go on and on, the mind is never silent and you must also listen to everyone and their advice and concerns too, you must bend in the wind and not stay rigid or the whole synergy could break and derail the momentum of the project.

IMP- Do you have other projects already made/in the works?

A&O- I always have something brewing in the back of my brain, We are always up to something creative at Standard Art Works, plotting the next project or story. We have a massive Fallout story we would like to continue, but we need to see there are people who want to see it. We always have projects in the shop, that is what we do, I have been building things for over 30 years.

A&O- Well, The biggest difficulty with CG is having the right person to assist with the knowledge of adding CG and when to add it, We were blessed to have Dorian Cleavenger, who is a world reknown artist and is a visionary himself, cover our sound enginerring and CG elements. In his hands, you can always expect to be blown away and he delieverd. He got together with me and we decided on a few green screen pick up shots to pull elements of the film together that we missed during the shoot. Very blessed to work with that type of mind when creating art work, So happy he just stepped up and loved what we shot and then wanted to add some pivotal visuals to make it a better film, we worked very close together to get things tight, he is an amazing artist.

IMP- Will we get to see some power armor in the next films?

A&O- I would love to include power armor and we have some great stuff story wise to tell yet, we have one hell of a story, we would like to make the prequel to Angels and Outlaws and then the sequel. there is a lot of ground to cover and a lot to break down into story boards and location shot lists, a whole lot of work is ahead of us, and a lot of budgeting to come in the future, takes a long time to make things right and to get the support needed to do more.

A&O- My Brothers, Shane and Terry and I have been making movies since the early 80's when we were kids, I went on to earn my degree in Industrial Design and then went on to Hollywood to work and have been working in film now professionally for almost 20 years. I had the opportunity to work with Oscar and Emmy award winning FX teams and work in and behind the scenes to block buster motion pictures, it changes how you see the world, I have never been the same since returning back to the east coast and instead of seeing wreck and ruin, all I see is Opportunity.

IMP- Need any actors? (I perform for beer...LOL.)

A&O- Things go right, and we get to finish this story, we will need a LOT of actors, a literal TON of talent! The best is yet to come with this tale from the world of Raiders, Robots and Radiation!! Working for beer, beer is always good, lol. especially after the shoot, for safety ;)